剝 → 頤
Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart → Hexagram 27: Nourishment
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 6).
Line 1
初六 剝牀以足。蔑貞凶。
Six at the beginning means: The leg of the bed is split. Those who persevere are destroyed. Misfortune.
Line 3
六三 剝之无咎。
Six in the third place means: He splits with them. No blame.
Line 6
上九 碩果不食。君子得輿。小人剝廬。
Nine at the top means: There is a large fruit still uneaten. The superior man receives a carriage. The house of the inferior man is split apart.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
危坐至暮，請求不得。膏澤不降，政戾民忒。
Empty bowls overturned on the table; the stove is cold, ashes chill. A mother calls her children home — there is nothing to serve.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain upon earth erodes into mountain above thunder — Nourishment, the hexagram of what sustains and what starves. The original verse speaks of a minister who sits rigidly until dusk, his petitions denied. Grace and favor do not descend; governance turns cruel and the people suffer. The image of denied nourishment is central: one waits in the proper posture of supplication, but nothing comes. The rewritten verse makes this concrete — empty bowls overturned, a cold stove with dead ashes, a mother calling her child home with nothing to serve. From Splitting Apart to Nourishment, the mountain's decay should yield to the mouth's sustaining function, yet here the mouth is empty. Thunder trapped beneath the mountain cannot break through; nourishment exists in principle but is withheld in practice.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store